Starting On Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series

Sometimes I find myself pulling into the parking lot of my preferred Books-a-Million on Newberry Road (as opposed to the NW 13th Street location) to check out the books there. I tend to browse throughout the store, but often focus on the science fiction/fantasy section. One author who has intrigued me by his enormous amount of material displayed there is the fantasy writer Terry Goodkind. Among his works is the twelve (lengthy) volume series The Sword of Truth, which he published over a span from 1994 to 2007. Goodkind, according to the Wikipedia article I read about him, is a fan of Ayn Rand and her objectivist philosophy. He has apparently incorporated this into the Sword of Truth series. I find the idea of placing objectivism into a fantasy setting, full of magic and the supernatural, pretty intriguing and want to discover how he pulls this off (or whether he actually does pull it off).

I have begun reading Terry Goodkind's Sword series with the first book Wizard's First Rule. Just to be on the safe side, though, I saved my money (for now) and just checked it out from my library. After the first chapter, though, it is clear to me that Goodkind is a good writer who at least knows how to begin a long work by spurring the reader's interest from the very beginning. Let's just hope that he can sustain that interest for me! Ultimately, though, I need to feel some sort of bonding with the characters he presents. They don't necessarily have to be likable (as is the case with Lev Grossman's Magician series protagonist Quentin Clearwater, quite an unlikable dude). But they do have to be believable and show some complexity.

I understand that this series of Goodkind had been adapted to a short television series titled Legend of the Seeker. "Short" because it was unceremoniously cancelled after a couple of seasons, apparently from general disinterest. Hopefully, I won't later feel the need to "cancel" my reading of the books from disinterest, too...